Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average
fell 50.17, or 0.6 percent, to 9,057.26 at the 3 p.m. close in
Tokyo. The following were among the most active shares in the
Japanese market today. Stock symbols are in parentheses after
company names.

Asahi Organic Chemicals Industry Co. (4216 JT), a maker of
resin products, advanced 4.9 percent to 213 yen. The company
will likely have a record operating profit in its U.S. division
this fiscal year, buoyed by “favorable” shipments of plumbing
materials and growing bulb demand from chipmakers, the Nikkei
newspaper reported.

Honda Motor Co. (7267 JT), Japan’s No. 2 carmaker by
revenue, slid 2.5 percent to 2,552 yen. The automaker’s U.S.
dealers are set for their most difficult month of sales since
Japan’s March earthquake, the Wall Street Journal reported. The
carmaker has been slower to boost production than Toyota Motor
Corp. (7203 JT) and Nissan Motor Co. (7201 JT). Honda’s
inventories are being depleted, leaving its retailers bracing
for a significant drop in sales in August, the report said.
Toyota and Nissan both fell 1.5 percent.

Nintendo Co. (7974 JO), the world’s largest maker of video-game players, rose 2.8 percent to 12,030 yen. Nintendo sold
about 215,000 3DS hand-held players in Japan last week after
cutting prices, research firm Enterbrain Inc. said in a
statement. That’s the product’s second-highest weekly sales
total since the player’s debut in February, according to the
Tokyo-based research firm.

Piped Bits Co. (3831 JT), a software developer, soared 9.7
percent to 113,000 yen. The company said it will sell 2,500 new
shares to United Ventures Inc., a privately held business
consulting company.

Sumco Corp. (3436 JT), a maker of silicon wafers for
semiconductors, retreated 5.1 percent to 996 yen, the lowest
since December 2008. UBS AG cut its stock-price estimate for
Sumco to 1,100 yen from 1,600 yen, maintaining its “neutral”
rating. “Earnings are weakening for solar cell wafers due to
lower prices,” UBS said in a report dated yesterday.